Get ready for Bay to Breakers wackiness

Updated 1:38 pm, Friday, May 17, 2013

Brent Thomas was up until 11 p.m. Wednesday sewing his Blue Angels onesie. Brianna Haag spent a good part of her workday Thursday bedazzling her bright-orange cape for her company's team.

Across town, San Francisco police officers installed new surveillance cameras at the Great Highway, and residents of the Panhandle girded for tens of thousands of runners and revelers, wacky and otherwise, ready to invade their neighborhood.

It's Bay to Breakers race season, all right - that time when, on the third Sunday in May, the city's streets fill with a patchwork of serious runners going for gold, amateurs seeking to run a personal best and countless others just hoping they won't pass out before 2 p.m.

More than 30,000 registered runners will start the 7.5-mile course at Howard and Main streets at 7 a.m. Organizers expect another 50,000 to 70,000 people will turn up to watch the mobile mob huff and puff up the Hayes Street hill or sprint for the finish through Golden Gate Park.

Like previous years, police officers will keep a sharp eye out for open bottles of alcohol, runners who didn't bother to register for the race or participants who figure the nearest bush is as good as any toilet.

Serious concerns

But police will also look out for anyone who might want to emulate the April attacks at the Boston Marathon that killed three and injured 264.

"It seems like 100 years ago, in light of Boston, that our primary concern was that everyone wears a costume, as long as they wear something," said Police Chief Greg Suhr, referencing the usual band of runners who jog in the buff, which is legal but discouraged.

Scores of police officers, some in uniform and some undercover in running garb, will keep a watchful eye, police said. Crews spent Thursday installing temporary surveillance cameras at the downtown starting line, the Great Highway finish line and the top of Hayes Street hill - three places where crowds are most likely to congregate, Suhr said.

The cameras will be monitored live by a team of police offers ready to dispatch quick response squads. Bomb technicians will be on standby, Suhr said.

Public works crews replaced every trash can on the race route with clear plastic containers so that nothing can be hidden inside.

But while police were wary, runners said they were not.

Not much anxiety

"Honestly, (Boston) is not on my mind," Thomas said. "I know it happened, but I am not that worried about anything like that happening here. I feel like the organizers and the police are on top of it."

Instead, Thomas, 33, who lives in Cole Valley, spent Wednesday night throwing a barbecue so that 15 of his friends could piece together their Blue Angels running costumes.

"They're not going to be here for Fleet Week so we thought we'd bring them back in spirit, at least for Bay to Breakers," Thomas said. "They're blue, and we sewed the wings to the sleeves."

Everyone is going to look a bit like a blue flying squirrel, Thomas said.

"I think the girls are going to wear some halos to play up the angels theme," Thomas said. "I've been to the past four Bay to Breakers and I've always gone in costume."

Thomas isn't registered for the race and admitted that, like all the other years, he may sneak a sip or three of alcohol along the way.

One fixture of the race will be missing this year, though. Stanley Roberts, of KRON-TV's "People Behaving Badly" feature, said an injury will prevent him from hoisting a camera to film his annual Bay to Breakers episode, which always features public urination and debauchery and is a cult hit on the Internet.

"To me it is like my Christmas," Roberts said. "I go there and I find people behaving badly. Always."

Office bonding

One bunch that absolutely wouldn't have wound up on Roberts' show is Haag, 28, a marketing manager for digital ticketing company Eventbrite, and her 26 co-workers. They're all officially registered and will wear orange face paint and custom-sewn orange capes emblazoned with the company's logo.

"We're encouraging everyone to take the capes that we gave them and spice them up with a little of their own flair or bedazzling," Haag said. "We're really excited to make a huge splash."

Weather

You'll need sunscreen, not a sweater, said Mike Pechner, a meteorologist with Golden West Meteorology. "It will not be cold and windy, I guarantee that," Pechner said. Sunday will start out at 55 to 60 degrees and rise to about 67 near the ocean.

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